Graduated: 2011
Thesis: Three Essays on Total Returns to the Employment Relationship
Research areas: Strategic Compensation, Strategic Human Resource Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Industrial Relations
Now: Associate Professor of Management at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS)
Dr. Byron Lee says he has always been interested in the rigour provided by economics and the questions that arose from the study of management and economics in his undergraduate degree at U of T. He began his graduate studies with an eye to developing the skills and knowledge to begin to understand how to analyze and think about economic problems and solutions that can further benefit society.
His research focus is primarily in the area of compensation where he examines how incentives in both North America and China lead to different motivations for employees and management. He also examines money as a psychological motivator and how different forms of psychological motivation leads to varying levels of performance for employees. Lee's research has been published in top journals such as Industrial Relations, Industrial and Labor Relations Review and the Journal of Labor Research, and he was awarded the Emerging Scholar Award in Employee Participation and Ownership by the Academy of Management in 2015
Selected publications:
Strategic Compensation
- Lee, B. Y. and DeVoe, S. E. (2012), Flextime and Profitability. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 51: 298-316. doi:10.1111/j.1468-232X.2012.00678.x
- Devoe, S. E., Pfeffer, J., Lee, B. Y. S. (2012). The Effect of Income on the Importance of Money: Survey and Experimental Evidence. Rotman School of Management Working Paper No. 2188645. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2188645
- Devoe, S. E., Lee, B. Y., & Pfeffer, J. (2010). Hourly versus Salaried Payment and Decisions about Trading Time and Money over Time. ILR Review, 63(4), 627–640. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391006300404
Strategic Human Resource Management and Leadership
- Zhang, K., Luo, W., & Lee, B. Y. (2013). Is Leader Charisma Individual-Centered or Relationship-Centered? Empirical Evidence from China, Frontiers of Business Research in China, 7(2), 165-188. doi: https://doi.org/10.3868/s070-002-013-0008-9
Industrial Relations
- Tao, T., Lee, B. Y., Song, L. J., & Liu, X. (2018). Gender differences in the impact on subjective well-being in china. Economic and Political Studies, 6(4), 349-367. doi:10.1080/20954816.2018.1535756
Lee has worked with a number for faculty and alumni from the Centre, including Tony Fang (CIRHR PhD 2004), Jing Wang (CIRHR PhD 2010), and Johanna Weststar (CIRHR PhD 2007), as well as Professors Michele Campolieti and Morley Gunderson.
- Morley Gunderson, M., Lee, B. Y., Wang, H. (2016). Union pay premium in China: An individual-level analysis. International Journal of Manpower. 37(2016), 606–627. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-08-2014-0174
- Ghorbani, M., Gunderson, Morley, Lee, Byron Y. S. (2019). Union and Communist Party Influences on the Environment in China. Industrial Relations. 74(2019), 552–576. http://ir.ceibs.edu/item/ir/4623
- Gunderson, M., Byron Y. (2016). Pay discrimination against persons with disabilities: Canadian evidence from PALS. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 27(2016), 1531–1549. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1072106
- Campolieti, M., Gunderson, M. & Lee, B. J Labor Res (2012) The (Non) Impact of Minimum Wages on Poverty: Regression and Simulation Evidence for Canada. Journal of Labor Research. 33: 287. "https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-012-9139-8"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-012-9139-8
- Fang, T., Lee, B., Timming, A. R., & Fan, D. (2019). The effects of work-life benefits on employment outcomes in Canada: A multivariate analysis. Relations Industrielles, 74(2), 323-352.
- Lee, B., Wang, J. & Weststar, J. (2015). Work hour congruence: The effect on job satisfaction and absenteeism. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(5), 657-675. First published online June 3, 2014, DOI: 10.1080/095851.
Before beginning his academic career, Lee worked for over six years in the public and private sector in Canada as an economist. He received his bachelor's degree in Management and Economics from the University of Toronto (2002) and a master's degree in Economics from the University of Waterloo (2003). Following his graduation from the CIRHR, Lee was the International MBA Academic Director and an Assistant Professor in the School of Business at Renmin University of China. He is now Assistant Professor of Management at CEIBS.